NBFF 2015: REPARATION By: Faiz No comments

 

Bob (Marc Menchaca) and Lucy (Virginia Newcomb) in Reparation.

Charlotte sometimes dreams

By Miranda Inganni

Bob (Marc Menchaca) has recently found his way out of a military mental hospital, partially thanks to a young boy, Ralph (Brody Behr), his imaginary friend and initially constant companion. Having forgotten the last three years of his life, Bob wanders through farms and vales. During his first job, he meets Lucy (Virginia Newcomb), a free-spirited gal whose favorite treatment for anything uncomfortable and/or unfamiliar is to yell at the problem and then quickly hush it away. Suppression at its best!

Speaking of suppressed, Bob and Lucy hit it off, but not without completely ignoring the fact that they never bother to share any personal information about themselves to each other. Eventually, they settle down in a quaint farming town where they raise their daughter, Charlotte (Dale Dye Thomas). Their idyllic life is irreparably interrupted when Jerome (John Huertas) shows up claiming to be Bob’s best friend from their Air Force days where they were Security Police. This unexpected and uninvited guest throws the family off-kilter. Bob’s forgotten memories begin to appear in Charlotte’s nightmares. Charlotte in turn expertly sketches the images which jolt Bob’s amnesia.

So, is it better or healthier to sometimes let sleeping dogs lie? Should one risk physical and/or mental trauma from recalling what one’s own brain has blocked one from remembering out of self-preservation? While the concept of daughter assuming father’s horrific memories utilized in Reparation is an interesting one, the movie never attempts to ask why Charlotte might be the receptacle for Bob’s repressed thoughts. What DNA trickery is this?

Although the dialogue could be stronger in certain places, Reparation does a nice job of building suspense and the script, co-written by director Kyle Ham and Steve Timm, includes a few refreshingly unexpected twists and turns, albeit not necessarily coming to a satisfying conclusion.


Reparation screens at the Newport Beach Film Festival April 30, 8 p.m., Regency South Coast Village. For more information: Reparation.

NBFF 2015: CALAMITY JANE By: Faiz No comments

Martha Canary/Calamity Jane (Kay Campbell) in Calamity Jane: Wild West Legend.

Martha, thy dreary

By Miranda Inganni

Calamity Jane, nee Martha Canary, was born in 1852 (most likely) in Missouri. According to Greg Monro’s film, her unstable childhood included the 8 year-old Martha traveling the Oregon Trail with her family, her parents’ subsequent deaths and Martha and her siblings being sent to an orphanage. First adopted at age 12, Martha was soon sent away for bad behavior. Where she went and/or what she did is not fully known. What historians do know is that Martha joined the Newton-Jenney Party into the Black Hills in 1875. Dressed in men’s attire, when reporters found out that Martha was a she, the public’s interest grew, leading to many articles, dime novels and even an autobiographical pamphlet Martha dictated (as she had no formal education) for publication. We also know that in 1876 she travelled to Deadwood, South Dakota, along with Wild Bill Hickock, though the full extent of their relationship is unknown.

Martha was daring and caring (as long as we are not talking about Native Americans). Not only was she a professional scout in the Wild West, she helped nurse smallpox sufferers back to health in Deadwood in the late 1870s. She was also, by all accounts, a raging alcoholic. She had two children, who were placed in foster care, and despite her infamy, died destitute in 1903 at the age of 51.

Told with reenactments -- with Kay Campbell playing the titular character, vintage photographs and lots of moving shots of pastoral and pristine rolling hills, wind-swept plains, and mountain ranges, director Monro’s film also employs many “experts,” most of whom rely heavily on hypothetical phrases such as, “I imagine… ,” or “it was possible… .” They make many suppositions about Martha and her family.

Martha was known for her colorful stories, but many of the tales about her life are unsubstantiated. Historical facts have disproved many of the musings about Calamity Jane. Unfortunately, Monro’s Calamity Jane is just as colorful yet unreliable as Martha’s own history. Monro tries to straddle the line between fact and fiction, but just can’t seem to ride it out.

 

 

Calamity Jane: Wild West Legend screens at the Newport Beach Film Festival April 26, 2:45 p.m. For more information: Calamity Jane.